From Pastor Van
The apostles gathered together with Jesus;
and they reported to Him all that they had done and taught. And He said to
them, "Come away
by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a while." (For there were many people coming and going, and they
did not even have time to eat.) They went away in the boat to a secluded place
by themselves. Mark 6:30-32
Having just returned from a week with 150 teens at Beach
Camp my body is weary but my soul is full.
There seems to be nothing so spiritually refreshing as getting away from
the constant noise around us and retreating to a place to focus on our
spiritual lives. I know personally that
retreats and camps have played a major role throughout my life and I have seen
the impact on students and adults through the years.
Jesus actually taught us the value of retreats in the way He
managed His Disciples. He would instruct
them, send them to work what He had taught, and then gather them to a quiet
place to debrief them and refill them.
He did this over and over again.
Interestingly, that was the way He began His own
ministry. Mark’s gospel tells us, Immediately the Spirit
*impelled Him to go out into the wilderness. And He was in the wilderness forty
days being tempted by Satan; and He was with the wild beasts, and the angels
were ministering to Him. Mark 1:12-13 Jesus went on pilgrimage to be baptized and
spent forty days in the desert praying in silence, solitude, meditating on
Scripture, and fasting. On this wilderness
retreat he solidified his mission for his public ministry and how he would
carry out ministry. He was empowered by
the Father and by Scripture to overcame Satan. After his pilgrimage Jesus was ready to launch
his public ministry and to start inviting people to follow him as his
apprentices.
Jesus often went out to lonely places to pray. Later, in Luke
11:1-4 when the disciples saw the priority of Jesus’ private prayer
times and the power and glory that came from him as a result of his connection
to the Father, they cried out, “Lord, teach us to pray!”
The ministry of Jesus and His Disciples is built around
various retreats into the mountains and to places away from the people. They went once on a retreat and the people
found them but Jesus still used the occasion to show the power of God by
feeding thousands of people. (Mark 6)
Jesus took Peter, James, and John to climb a mountain for a
spiritual retreat. They were renewed in the beauty of nature. They talked. They
prayed. They rested on the mountaintop. And suddenly right before their eyes
Jesus engaged in conversation with Moses and Elijah and he was transfigured so
that they saw his glory radiate like the sun! Jesus showed the disciples his
divine nature as the Son of God and it changed their lives and ours forever!
Jesus and his disciples went to the Upper Room for the Last
Supper and then took Peter, James, and John to the Garden of Gethsemane. There
in the olive grove they watched and prayed in a night vigil of preparation for
the cross. And then, He went to complete
His work leaving some men who would change the world just from being with Him!
So, I highly value the opportunities to break away with
believers of any age to do a debriefing of our lives and seek divine
instruction for the days to come. You
just can’t get in weekly worship what you get in a few days of abandonment of
our circumstances to retreat to listen to Jesus!
Scripture to
Claim:
Yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new
strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get
tired, they will walk and not become weary. Isaiah 40:31 